Israel has turned to a short animated film and paid digital advertisements to promote its narrative of the war on Gaza, seeking to challenge accusations of genocide through claims about civilian protection and humanitarian assistance. The promotional campaign presents Israeli military operations as defensive while overlooking the scale of Palestinian deaths, destruction and starvation during three years of war.
The animated video, titled “Terrorism Is Not a Game… Remember October 7,” was published on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s official YouTube channel.
Activists also documented the video appearing as a sponsored advertisement in Batumi, a popular tourist destination in Georgia, raising questions about Israel’s use of paid digital advertising to extend its wartime messaging to international audiences.
The film centres on the 7 October 2023 attack and presents Israel’s justification for its military campaign in Gaza, claiming that its operations were intended to prevent a repeat of the Palestinian operation known as Al-Aqsa Flood.
However, the video makes little acknowledgement of the extensive civilian casualties and destruction caused by Israeli military operations throughout the Gaza Strip.
It also attempts to counter genocide accusations by pointing to Israeli claims that the military issued evacuation warnings, permitted deliveries of food, water and medicine, and introduced pauses in military operations to facilitate polio vaccinations for Palestinian children.
These claims form part of an Israeli public relations narrative that presents selected humanitarian measures as evidence against allegations of genocide, without addressing the broader pattern of military conduct and restrictions imposed on Gaza’s civilian population.
UN Investigation Contradicts Israel’s Narrative on Genocide
The Israeli promotional campaign stands in contrast to findings documented by an independent United Nations investigation into the war.
On 16 September 2025, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry concluded that Israeli authorities and security forces had committed four of the five acts defined under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
The commission also concluded that there was evidence of an intention to destroy Palestinians in Gaza, in whole or in part.
Its findings were based on statements made by Israeli officials, patterns of military operations and restrictions imposed on essential conditions of civilian life.
The four acts identified by the commission included:
- Killing Palestinians.
- Causing serious bodily or mental harm.
- Deliberately imposing living conditions calculated to bring about the physical destruction of the population, in whole or in part.
- Imposing measures intended to prevent births.
The commission’s findings directly challenge the suggestion that evacuation warnings or limited humanitarian measures, by themselves, disprove accusations of genocide.
Under the Genocide Convention, the assessment of genocide requires consideration of the acts committed, the surrounding circumstances and evidence of the specific intent to destroy a protected national, ethnic, racial or religious group, in whole or in part.
Consequently, issuing evacuation warnings or announcing the delivery of humanitarian assistance does not automatically exclude the possibility that genocidal acts have been committed.
The UN commission also documented the widespread and systematic destruction of civilian infrastructure across Gaza, restrictions on humanitarian assistance and the forced displacement of Palestinians.
It considered these practices collectively as part of the evidence supporting its conclusions regarding genocide.
More Than 74,000 Palestinians Killed as Gaza Faces Devastation
The humanitarian consequences of Israel’s military campaign extend far beyond the claims presented in the animated video.
Since 7 October 2023, the war has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians and injured approximately 200,000 others, according to the figures cited in the report.
The majority of Gaza’s population has been displaced, while entire residential neighbourhoods and urban areas have been reduced to ruins.
The scale of destruction has devastated housing, healthcare, education and the territory’s economy, leaving Gaza facing an extensive and prolonged reconstruction challenge.
According to the final damage and needs assessment issued jointly by the United Nations, European Union and World Bank in April 2026, Gaza will require approximately $71.4 billion in recovery and reconstruction funding over ten years.
The assessment documented extensive damage across essential civilian infrastructure and economic sectors.
More than 371,000 housing units were damaged or destroyed, leaving large sections of the population without adequate shelter.
More than half of Gaza’s hospitals were out of service, while the majority of schools had suffered damage or destruction.
The territory’s economy had also contracted by 84%, reflecting the severe economic devastation associated with the war.
These figures illustrate the scale of the humanitarian catastrophe against which Israel’s claims concerning civilian protection and humanitarian access must be assessed.
Humanitarian Crisis Continues Despite Ceasefire
The consequences of the war have continued despite the ceasefire agreement, with large numbers of displaced Palestinians still exposed to dangerous living conditions.
In early October, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned that approximately 279,000 Palestinians living across 400 displacement sites were at risk of flooding.
The warning came as humanitarian agencies struggled to prepare for the approaching winter amid shortages of essential supplies and continuing restrictions on the entry of necessary materials and equipment.
These limitations have complicated efforts to provide adequate shelter, improve conditions at displacement sites and address the needs of communities already severely affected by years of military operations and displacement.
Meanwhile, Israel’s sponsored animated campaign continues to present its military conduct through claims of humanitarian precautions and assistance, despite the UN commission’s genocide findings and the extensive evidence of civilian deaths, mass displacement and destruction documented throughout the Gaza Strip.
